Today’s guest is Matt Waldman, the tape-breakdown guru of Football Guys, the RSP Blog, and Football Outsiders. Feel free to follow him on Twitter at @MattWaldman. We cut about 20 minutes of talk about cats from this episode, so consider yourself fortunate.

We should note that our show has an “explicit” tag in iTunes. There is cursing though it is usually incidental. Don’t listen if you have delicate ears or are in a workplace environment.

— Matt’s story about running out of gas in Alabama on his way to the Senior Bowl. In a Prius.
— What does Matt pay attention to when it comes to the NFL Combine? Should players run 40s with full pads?
— How much of being a writer is content, and how much is self-promotion? Matt does an excellent job of Tweeting out old links.
— Has Matt ever taken an ego hit while trying to interview a player?
— When was the last time Matt was honestly surprised by a player on film?
— Who is the most entertaining player he’s watched this year? Who is the most entertaining person to watch tape with in the RSP Film Room?
— Karlos Williams out of Florida State is the Speed Score champion. Matt was very high on him last year. Is he still?
— Would Matt be comfortable with Johnny Manziel as his franchise’s quarterback of the future? Over Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota? What about Blake Bortles?
— How much impact can a good coaching staff have on a team?
— What is there to do in Athens, Georgia?
— When is the second-most exciting moment to be Matt Waldman?

–Who should we interview next? Please let us know on Twitter or in the comments.–I have a topic I’d like you to cover! Please send it to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, and we’ll turn it into a mailbag question or a segment.–I have a suggestion to improve the show!: Again, please send to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, or leave a comment.–Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. The show runs on your kindness. And maybe booze.–Subscribe to The Three-Cone Drill on iTunes.
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This week NFL media was inundated with combine talk. 4.5 40s here and 4.3 40s there. Rich Eisen ran the 40 and garnered more publicity than any run of 40 yards ever should. What actually matters at the NFL combine though? Well, thankfully we’ve been in this business long enough to talk about it.

We should note that our show has an “explicit” tag in iTunes. There is cursing though it is usually incidental. Don’t listen if you have delicate ears or are in a workplace environment.

— The place where most money is actually made: team interviews and combine medicals.
— The 40-yard dash and bench press are “glamour” combine events. But what do they really prove? How much do they actually matter?
— Rivers shares his story about a “weird” NFL Combine question.
— Good performance at the combine correlates strongly with getting drafted higher, but not necessarily performing better in the NFL.

–Who should we interview next? Please let us know on Twitter or in the comments.–I have a topic I’d like you to cover! Please send it to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, and we’ll turn it into a mailbag question or a segment.–I have a suggestion to improve the show!: Again, please send to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, or leave a comment.–Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. The show runs on your kindness. And maybe booze.–Subscribe to The Three-Cone Drill on iTunes.
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Last week’s Justine Sacco article got Danny and I thinking. So consider this podcast a shot at the fact that you are your own brand. Sometimes, your brand is held up to wildly strange standards. This was one of those times. Danny has personal experience in this area. On the other hand, he did end child slavery.

We should note that our show has an “explicit” tag in iTunes. There is cursing though it is usually incidental. Don’t listen if you have delicate ears or are in a workplace environment.

Mailbag: A clarification from an NFL employee on why the Hall of Fame voting occurs the day before the Super Bowl. Why don’t NFL players have guaranteed contracts? Why is our robot introduction voice empirically superior? Some soccer question that Danny knows the answer to.

Subject: The Brand of You

— How much should we be cultivating our image online? What are the risks of a culture that forces us to differentiate between these things?
— How easy is it to slip into mob mentality online? Is there a Roger Goodell press conference that won’t end with us killing him.
— Danny’s personal experience: how he felt about errors that he made that were arguably out of his control. How it makes people cast aspersions on your very motivations.
— #ThoughtsAndPrayers

–Who should we interview next? Please let us know on Twitter or in the comments.–I have a topic I’d like you to cover! Please send it to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, and we’ll turn it into a mailbag question or a segment.–I have a suggestion to improve the show!: Again, please send to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, or leave a comment.–Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. The show runs on your kindness. And maybe booze.–Subscribe to The Three-Cone Drill on iTunes.–Non-iTunes RSS feed

We made an intentional point not to talk about the deflated balls of New England while the Super Bowl was going down. But, now that it’s over, and options are drying up rapidly … well, what is our stance on cheating in the NFL? Where do you draw the line between cheating and gamesmanship? It kinda depends on that pesky phrase “the spirit of the rules.”

We should note that our show has an “explicit” tag in iTunes. There is cursing, though it is usually incidental. Don’t listen if you have delicate ears or are in a workplace environment.

— How are moral judgments of people you don’t know are the ultimate red barn conversation piece?
— Performance-enhancing drugs are cheating, right? We clarify Danny’s stance on this, and Rivers explains why he doesn’t believe they matter as much contextually as Danny does.
— NFL teams are always trying to push the limits of the rules. Why do we get mad at those that are caught, but have nothing to say about those who aren’t?
— The long list of possible things we could point to as cheating: pumping in crowd noise, fixing games, Jerry Rice’s stickum, etc. What is cheating, and what isn’t? And if a team does get caught pushing the rules, does this mean we need to look on everything they do with suspicion?

–Who should we interview next? Please let us know on Twitter or in the comments.–I have a topic I’d like you to cover! Please send it to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, and we’ll turn it into a mailbag question or a segment.–I have a suggestion to improve the show!: Again, please send to threeconedrill (at) gmail (dot) com, or leave a comment.–Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review here. The show runs on your kindness. And maybe booze.–Subscribe to The Three-Cone Drill on iTunes.–Non-iTunes RSS feed